San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1887-04-14
TExAS THJRSD

REAGAN's vINDICATI0N.
What Three Score Years and Ten Hare
Enabled Him to Outlive.
Special corrsspondsnos sf the dlobs. Democrat.
WASHINGTON, d. O., Feb. 7.-Mr.
Reagan enters the United States SEN
ate in his Goth year. A long life was
necessary to compass such Q career
as he has had. He has held many
Offices and held them long, but mixed
in with successes there is period
during which Mr.. Reagan knew what
it was to receive the praise OF enc
mics and the cold looks Of friends
Most people have forgotten that there
was O time when Horace Greeley
pronounced Mr.. Reagan the most
sensible OF the Southern statesmen,
and when the press Of the South, in
language as strong as was prudent in
the days OF martial rule, denounced
him. In the light Of subsequent
events that time when Mr.. Reagan
was repudiated by his people stands
out as the most admirable Of his
career.
HIS GREATEST ACT.
Imprisoned in Fort Warren, he
sent to the people of Texas an ad-
dress, in which he urged in the most
earnest words he could command q
full acceptance Of the results Of the
war. This was less than six months
after the surrender OF the Confeder-
ate armies. The whole question oi
reconstruction was yet to be passed
upon. The South was o chaos and
under military rule. Mr. Reagan
with the voice Of a prophet, laid bare
the future and advised the Texans as
follows:
Ihave no doubt you can adopt a plan
which will fully meet the demands Of justice
and fairness, and satisfy the Northern mind
and the requirements Of the Government
without endangering good government and
the repose Of society. This can DO done by
1. Extending the privileges and protec-
ton of the laws over the negroes as they
are over the whites, and allowing them to
testify in the courts on the same conditions,
leaving their testimony subject to the rules
relating to its oredibility, and not objecting
to its admissibility. And in this way you
will conform with the wise current OF mod
ern legislation and the tendency OF judicial
decisions in all enlightened countries
2. Fixing IN intellectual and moral and,
If thought necessary, property test for the
admission of all persons TO the exercise OF
the elective franchise, without reference tt
race or color, which would secure 1t its In
telligent exercise.
THE VOICE OF PROPHET.
This second proposition Mr.. Rea
gan elaborated by suggesting that
the ability to read should be the in
tellectual test, and payment OF taxes
for one year the property test.
He drew vivid picture Of the evils
of race conflict, and dwelt upon
the s'hopelessness of escape" from
the threatening dangers by ever
again appealing to the principle Of
State sovereignty and the right oi
secession" He went on in this
strain:
How infinitely better II would be for you,
for both races, for the present, for the fu-
tuIe, for the whole country, II you will un'
hesitatingly recognize the unalterable facts
Oh to your condition and the inevitable logic
of events, and hasten, as Is in your power
to do, the return Of the blessings Of civil
government and constitutional liberty, and
avoid, as is IN your power to do, the fearful
perils which now lie before you.
The address concluded as follows :
Iknow the painful struggle against edu.
cation, and habit, and policy, and tradition,
and prejudice, which such course will re-
auire you to encounter, and how hard 1t Ia
for human nature TO overcome such difficult
ties. But my sincere prayer Is that God In
HIS goodness and mercy may enable you TO
exhibit this last browning evidence in the
midst Of your calamities.
WITHOUT HONOR IN HIS OWN COUNTRY.
This address was published by the
Texas papers, and then found its way
North, where it was lauded as the
voice Of statesman. The Southern
papers not only repudiated and de-
nounced the advice, but they heaped
scorn upon the author by the sting.
ing insinuation that it had been writ
ten to get out Of prison. A worse
insult could not have been invented
for man OF Mr.. Reagan's character.
He was shortly afterward released
from confinement and went back
quietly to his Texas farm to end his
days, he doubtless thought in OBJ
scurity.
When Just 81 he had left mis- Ten
nessee home gone to seek his fortune
in Texas. That was in 1889. Almost
Immediately he became a man Of note
among the patriots who were bent
on founding the Republic of Texas.
de was appointed Justice OF the
Peace, and no commission Of that
kind ever before or since carried such
jurisdiction with it. His district was
bounded by the Gulf Of Mexico on
the south and by the Indian Terri
tory on the north. After that he was
a deputy surveyor. There is strik-
ing parallel between the gradual ad-
vancement OF Lincoln and Reagan.
The first Legislature after Texas
was admitted 10 the Union included
Reagan In 1853 he was made dis
trict Judge. He came 10 the Thirty
fifth Congress as the representative
from what was then the First Dis
trict, the eastern portion Of the state,
and later TO the Thirty-sixth Con